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Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Microsoft has a new way to force us into Windows 10. Well, it's not exactly new; they've been doing it for about a year already - it's just getting worse. And it has to do with updating and installing patches on your computer.

Windows 7 and Vista allow us to control how and when we install updates. Windows 8/8.1 and 10 do the thinking and make the decisions for us. It seems this is one of the biggest reasons Microsoft has been pushing their users to Windows 10 - more control for them, less for us.

Should your Windows 7 computer need a hard drive replacement or an operating system reinstallation or even a System Restore, getting Windows Update working again will be a monumental task, if it works at all. Waiting for Windows Update to check for updates has been taking 8 to 12, even 24 hours just to check for updates. Downloading and installing the updates takes almost as long.

There's no official Microsoft fix for the issue, though there's a lot of advice online. Suffice to say it's taking two or three times as long to do the job as it used to before the *change*. Microsoft barely acknowledges it's a problem. The solution, for them, is for you to go to Windows 10 or buy a new computer with Windows 10.

What to do if it happens to you? Each case is different, but it might be time to look for a new computer. The labor alone to reinstall a Windows Vista or 7 computer has doubled.

Maybe you think now would be a good time to ditch Microsoft and head over to the Apple Store. If so, I bid you farewell and good luck. Or, maybe you just don't think you need a computer anymore, since you mainly use your phone or tablet to play games on Facebook and maybe look at your email once in a while. Let's be realistic - portable devices are the future. But for anyone who still wishes to create anything (documents, photos, projects) or do real research or store much of anything (music, photos, genealogy info, invoices and receipts) it's more manageable to do so on an actual computer.

If it's time for you to change to a new computer (do NOT buy the Windows 10 upgrade for your existing computer - the cost plus installation and data transfer will go a long way towards a new computer), let's talk. I've been buying a decent Dell Windows 10 laptop for under $600, and a nice, new all-in-one Canon printer that does everything anyone could want for under $100.

Times change, technology changes, our needs change. Change is the only thing on which we can rely.